PARIS (Reuters) – The Italian-French carmaker Stellantis wants to support the US company Archer Aviation in the construction of an air taxi.
In addition, Stellantis will increase its stake in Archer, both companies announced in a joint statement on Wednesday. The planned air taxi Midnight eVTOL, which can carry four passengers and a pilot over a distance of around 160 kilometers, is to be built in the city of Covington in the US state of Georgia from 2024. Stellantis is aiming for mass production of the air taxi as the exclusive contract manufacturer.
The automaker, the result of the merger of Peugeot and Fiat Chrysler, plans to provide Archer with up to $150 million in capital, depending on the achievement of certain business goals. The Stellantis stake in Archer is to be increased by buying shares on the open market, it said. An eVTOL is an electrically powered aircraft that can take off and land vertically.
(Report by Gilles Guillaume, written by Birgit Mittwollen. Edited by Christian Götz. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at [email protected] (for politics and the economy) or [email protected] (for companies and markets).)